The Arizona sentinel., 1887-04-02

heavy beech trees, there among rocks and gnarled pines, that clung to the edge of some abyss. As we were above the snow-line, though there was little or no snow on the mountain, the air, hot as the day was in the valley, was bracing and delicious. It was an in toxicating pleasure simply to open the mouth wide, and let the delicious draughts blow in.
 '1n five minutes we are upr' cried Gretchen, as we rounded very steep point in the path that had almost broken our knees and used up our breath.
 Sure enough. one little steep climb of a couple of hundred feet, and we stood on a beautiful plateau covered with grass. It was a mile long, and half mile wide, and seemed like a fairy meadow hung among the clouds. This is what the Swiss call an "alp," and the shepherds, when talking of the alps, refer to these little green meadows above the clouds. Gretchen got her supper from herdsman whom she knew, and who seemed much to like her. From me she had the five franc piece for a new gown, and an Americans sincere thanks. In ten minutes she was bouncing, like a scared roe, down the steep sides of the mountain.
 The fact that was member of the Swiss Alpine Club soon brought me acquaintances among the half-dozen dairymen, or "senns," as they call them in the Al ps. There were sixty of the beautiful brown Swftzer cows on the little alp, and six senns to herd them, and make their milk into 'Schabziger cheese"
 "Yes," said one of the senns, "I have been on this alp all the summers for seventeen years, and one of my com rades has been here nine summers. The other young fellows are here for their first season. We will get the cows in and milked, and after supper I will tell you something about the cheese"
 'It is no great secret then, after all, ," I thought, ''if I am to learn it so easily"
 The chief sem stepped up on a great powder that served as wind-break for the little hut, and gave Swiss 'jodel," that peculiar and difficult song of the mountaineers.
 "Ho GlH! To aIEi! ho GEHi ho! hu-hu- aEi hor'
 None but the strong, practised voice of the mountaineer, and then only in the air of the high alps, can safely venture on the weird melody, which the rocks take up and reverberate, and far of shepherds hear and answer back. Every COW of the drove, though half a mile away, knew the senn's jodel, and slowly marched into the low stone shed to be milked. One side of the hut was boarded of, and there stood dozen of the soft-eyed, mouse-colored COWS, tied all in a TOW, their heads looking over the manager toward us, seemingly listening to what we were saying, while their bells tinkled a curious ac- compartment. It became a little chillier, later, and one of the senns brought in an enormous armful of dried Alpine roses. What romantic sort of fire it was!
 "We must dig them up by the tens of wagon-loads, said the sem, ''or they overrun our meadows and spoil them."
 It seemed wasteful to be burning such rare and beautiful things, and I recalled that down in the valleys, and in the cities, single little bOutonnier of them sold for quarter, and that fine bouquet of Alpine roses was worth two dollars when quite fresh.
 ''It is bedtime, so let us turn in" was the command, ''fOr we are up in the morning at four o'clock"
 There was but one bed for seven men. Itwas made of number of rude poles, laid together, side by side, resembling a corduroy bridge. Our bedding was hay, pulverized to fine ness from much use. Our covering a heavy canvas tarpaulin. Seven men, on seven poles, sleeping under one tar paulin! As tried and tried to sleep that night, the cow-bells that had seemed to tinkle so sweetly the night before, became a great annoyance. Would they never stop their rattle? In spite of them, did Sleep, at last, lit tie, and then other things conspired to wake me.
 One was the deep snoring of my six comrades under the tarpaulin. Auoth- CT was an army of what Mark Tw ain once described as the Swiss chamois." They were, in fact, simply mountain fieas; but most superior in size, and numerous in quantity. What with the snores, the fleas, the hard poles, and the cow-bells, real sleep, even rest, be- came out of the question. It was after midnight, and the full moon was up. Without taking the trouble, to make a toilet, I went out of the cabin. -s
 What sight! Never in my life had I seen such perfect, such glorious moonlight. It was like stepping sud- denly into a brighter world. The per feet atmosphere made the shining of. the moon light almost beyond description. Great snow-ields and ice-gorges, lying on other mountain